Monday, February 6, 2012

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, a Democratic candidate in Washington's gubernatorial race, campaigned in Spokane this morning, presenting his idea for a "new economy."

In the speech at Absolute Aviation Services, an airplane parts repair business near the airport, Inslee focused on his job-creation plan, which is based around bringing jobs to the state through cultural and economic change.

"I intend to get up every morning for the next several years intent on creating jobs,” Inslee told The Inlander after the event. “I believe it’s our destiny to have that."

According to Inslee’s campaign website, he intends to rebuild the state’s economy based on “innovative, creative thinking; an economy that puts Washington state at the forefront of a clean energy revolution in job creation.”

Washington’s job creation, says Inslee, should be focused on several different fields: aerospace, life sciences, military, agriculture, information technology and clean energy technology.

On his site, Inslee says he's running for governer to “create jobs and restore security for the middle class, to level the playing field, and bring fairness to the working families of Washington.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington’s unemployment rate stood at 8.5 percent as of December. At the same time, Spokane’s unemployment rate was 9 percent, a decrease from the previous January, when it was at 10.3 percent.

"We’ve got to understand that there is one clear imperative,” says Inslee. “We need to grow thousands of middle-class jobs if we're going to deal with our fiscal challenges in this state."